Saturday, 29 March 2014

When I was teaching at a special school for pupils with EBD, there often wasn't much to laugh about, but this little episode always makes me chuckle when I think about it.

I was taking a Year 8 Science lesson, when one of the boys just stood up and walked out. He boldly walked back in about 10 minutes later eating a huge piece of pizza that he had been given by the Home Economics teacher in a separate building block on the other side of the school. When I told him he was not eating that in a Science Lab, nay in my lesson, he threw the pizza at me. I had guessed what he was going to do and moved out of the way. Quickly picking it up and throwing it back at him, it caught his white hoodie and left tomato smears all the way down the front. The other boys applauded and it totally took the wind out of the miscreant's sails.

Who was to really blame for this? Okay, the boy shouldn't have walked out of my lesson, but that happens. He could have eaten the pizza on the way back and I would have been none the wiser. But why on earth did an experienced teacher, a senior teacher at that, give a boy who was obviously in the wrong place at the wrong time, the reward of a piece of pizza?

Wednesday, 26 March 2014

I have spent a great deal of the last 3 days on Twitter(!), so decided I would make cards this afternoon. I ended up making 4 wedding and anniversary cards because they were part of the Hobby House kit I have been using recently. Goodness knows what I am going to do with all these cards. I think I will perhaps do a craft sale when I have enough!

I have used up most of what was in the box now, so I will now put into practice what I have learned and come up with my own designs.

Was it worth the effort? Who knows!! But it coincides with an article in the newspaper about some British schools teaching English as a foreign language to meet the needs of all the children who speak a different language in their home.

Since Christmas, I have written poems about Dad, based around appropriate prompts. I wanted to make a feature of them and had this idea to write them over photos of Dad.

The photos I chose to use were the last taken of him, just days before he died. I used the Craft Studio Elite program to fade the large photo for a background, typed the poem and then added the same reduced size photo in the corner.

This was the poem I wrote when I read the #HeartSoup prompt "slipping through my fingers". I tried to reduce it to 140 words, but it wasn't going to happen. So I found this egg timer drawing online and wrote my poem over the top in black ink. It was then stuck into my journal, which has been sadly neglected.

Friday, 21 March 2014

This was another tricky card to make. Again from a Ribbonbox kit that I had stored away a few years ago.

The basket and handle had to be completely covered in glitter which made everything else around sparkly!! Then I had to pull the strings in the blue ribbon to make a pull bow with 5 loops. Next 3 green paper leaves and 3 lace leaves were stuck on. Then the tricky bit!! Each of the flowers is made from ribbon. I had to fold and sew and then pull the thread up tight to make flowers with 3 petals. A gem was stuck in the centre and some beads underneath the gem. Finally these were glued over the top of the leaves and bow. Then some paper butterflies and and small flowers were added.

It really is a lovely card. And there is an added bonus...the ribbon flowers are scented!! The purple is lavender, the pink is rose and the yellow is lemon.

Monday, 10 March 2014

On Sunday, we went to a garden centre near Glasbury called the Railway. It is very popular because they have a restaurant that does lovely food. So we got there just before 12 noon and Rod bought us all a traditional Sunday roast of beef, Yorkshire pudding, roast and new potatoes, cauliflower cheese and other vegetables. The roast beef was very thinly sliced and absolutely delicious. Then I had a dish of strawberry ice cream while Rod had rhubarb crumble and custard.

I wanted to get the flowers to fill Mum's cup and saucer so we chose some primroses. I wish I had taken a photo. So unlike me!!

Then we had a lazy afternoon, and Rorie rang us from Japan. He sounded very upbeat despite being very busy at work and suffering from a very bad back since before Christmas. It got so bad that he went to hospital for a check up, but couldn't really make the doctor understand what was wrong. He says the pain is in his back, but the doctor was only interested in his neck. So at the moment he is using tiger balm (?) which he says has greatly helped. He is going to also have a deep tissue massage and perhaps try acupuncture. If that fails, Rorie is in Paris at the end of the month for a conference and he might try to see someone there (or even pop over to London).

He and Azusa had been to see Let It Be, which is a show about all the Beatle's albums with lots of songs from each one. He said it was the most amazing show he has ever been too, despite paying a fortune for seats that were right at the back!!

We got back here just before 9pm and I was so tired by then, I just unpacked what I had to and went to bed!!

I've just had the most enjoyable weekend, despite feeling quite ill at times.

We started with Rod taking me to lunch at a lovely garden centre. I had scampi and chips, and managed to eat all the scampi, some salad and a few chips. Luckily Rod never minds finishing off what's on my plate! I bought Mum a large planter in the form of a cup and saucer for Mother's Day while we were there. We then drove on to Ross on Wye. Because the sun was shining and it was very warm, there were lots of people everywhere. We went to Labels first because they had a craft outlet which sold fantastic double sided tape. Unfortunately, they are remodeling the outlet and everything was moved around. Rod asked a male sales assistant where the craft section was, and he said it was no longer there. I actually don't think that is true because it is advertised in craft magazines!! But because I am quite tired at the moment, we gave up. As we drove out, we noticed that there had been an antiques and collectors fair at the livestock market. Something to look out for in future.

We then drove into the town and tried to get a disabled parking space near the craft shop. Despite driving around 3 times, all disabled parking was taken, so we had to park right at the top of the town and walk down. I actually coped quite well, but Rod really struggled with his balance as the hill is quite steep. Finally, we got to the shop and he left me to enjoy spending my birthday money, while he went over to the small market and to look at a few shops. While doing that, he noticed the traffic warden ticketing some of the cars in the disabled bays. It is just so annoying when able bodied people park in disabled bays, and we were both glad to see the drivers penalized.

I will take some photos of my craft goodies a bit later and post them. I actually wanted more cutting dies but they didn't have what I wanted. Nevertheless, I had no problem in spending my money.

We then drove along all the country lanes to Hay on Wye and then Glasbury. I actually didn't notice the journey because I had a lot of birthday tweets to respond to when I could get a signal and when the road wasn't too bumpy.

Mum had actually already got a tea ready for us when we got there and had made me the most lovely orange flavoured cake. It is the best cake in the world and I have had one made every single year since I was very young.

Friday, 7 March 2014

I had a very bad night last night. I'd had a temperature yesterday, and sore throat and tight chest. At 1.00am, I woke up coughing, couldn't get my breath and panicked. It took me a very long time to feel relaxed enough to sleep.

So it was really nice to get a bunch of freesias first thing from my mother. Okay...they are really for my birthday tomorrow, but they made me feel so much better. I am going to eat my small box of chocolates in a moment:))

Tuesday, 4 March 2014

This was the first card I made this afternoon. I had already put glitter around the edge of the insert yesterday. The musical notes are actually a wide piece of ribbon that is cut away at each side. All the cards today are made from Ribbonbox kits that I bought and stored away years ago.

I had some free Hunky Dory Toppers and papers that came free with a craft magazine and I had seen this type of card being made on Create and Craft and decided that the two together would make an ideal Mother's Day card.

This is the card from the front. I made C4 card by sticking 2 pieces of A4 white card together on the left hand side. I then cut the top piece of card away at the join. A piece of acetate was then stuck over the join and the tape hidden by a piece of card. I then matted another piece onto mirri card, stuck this over the top and added card candi for decoration.

At this point, the card was very flimsy and full of static, and I almost gave up with it!

I cut a large piece of the background card/paper and mounted it on mirri card and stuck this on the card. You can see it in the next photo.

2 toppers were then positioned on the acetate. The frame was put on with foam and the centre was stuck flat. I added a greeting with foam stickers and then covered this on the inside of the acetate with white card cut to size. Finally, I added a pearl decoration and 2 roses to the bottom left of the acetate and 3 faux pearls to the top right.